Matt Nable will make his directorial debut with Stan Original feature Transfusion, a thriller set to star Sam Worthington and Phoebe Tonkin.
Shooting now in Sydney, the film sees Worthington play Ryan Logan, a former Special Forces operative who is battling to cope with life after the loss of his wife (Tonkin) and is thrust into the criminal underworld to keep his only son from being taken from him.
Nable directs from his own script and will play a character known as Johnny. Also starring is new talent Edward Carmody, who will play Billy Logan, Ryan’s son.
John and Michael Schwarz from Deeper Water Films are the producers, with Transfusion marking the second Stan original film for the company following Anthony Hayes’ Gold.
Cailah Scobie, Paul Wiegard, Will Clarke, Andy Mayson and Mike Runagall are the executive producers.
Michael Schwarz said: “In Transfusion we’ve found a movie that...
Shooting now in Sydney, the film sees Worthington play Ryan Logan, a former Special Forces operative who is battling to cope with life after the loss of his wife (Tonkin) and is thrust into the criminal underworld to keep his only son from being taken from him.
Nable directs from his own script and will play a character known as Johnny. Also starring is new talent Edward Carmody, who will play Billy Logan, Ryan’s son.
John and Michael Schwarz from Deeper Water Films are the producers, with Transfusion marking the second Stan original film for the company following Anthony Hayes’ Gold.
Cailah Scobie, Paul Wiegard, Will Clarke, Andy Mayson and Mike Runagall are the executive producers.
Michael Schwarz said: “In Transfusion we’ve found a movie that...
- 6/18/2021
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
The Great Gatsby dominated. Aacta.s technical and short films awards today, collecting gongs in all six craft categories for which it was nominated, plus the Aacta award for outstanding achievement in visual effects.
The co-production Top of the Lake bagged two TV trophies while Matchbox Pictures. Nowhere Boys, created by Tony Ayres, was named best children.s TV series.
The TV documentary prize went to Redesign My Brain, which explores the revolutionary new science of brain plasticity, written and directed by Paul Scott and produced by Isabel Perez and Scott for ABC TV.
Writer-director Nick Verso's The Last Time I Saw Richard, produced by John Molloy, was honoured as best short fiction film. Developed and funded through Screen Australia.s Springboard program, the short is a prequel to the upcoming feature film Boys In The Trees, tracing the friendship between two teenagers in a mental health clinic in...
The co-production Top of the Lake bagged two TV trophies while Matchbox Pictures. Nowhere Boys, created by Tony Ayres, was named best children.s TV series.
The TV documentary prize went to Redesign My Brain, which explores the revolutionary new science of brain plasticity, written and directed by Paul Scott and produced by Isabel Perez and Scott for ABC TV.
Writer-director Nick Verso's The Last Time I Saw Richard, produced by John Molloy, was honoured as best short fiction film. Developed and funded through Screen Australia.s Springboard program, the short is a prequel to the upcoming feature film Boys In The Trees, tracing the friendship between two teenagers in a mental health clinic in...
- 1/28/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
The Hunter has lead the Aacta Awards with 14 nominations including best film.
The film, by Daniel Nettheim, is also up for best direction, adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound, production design, costume, original music score, and visual effects. Meanwhile, Willem Dafoe, Frances O’Connor, Sam Neill and Morgana Davies are all up for acting awards.
The film has currently made just over $1m at the local box office.
It’s the first year for the re-launched AACTAs, formerly the AFI awards.
The technical awards will be given out at a luncheon on 15 January at the Sydney Opera House, with an evening ceremony for the more ‘public-friendly’ awards held at the Opera House on 31 January.
Running against The Hunter for best film is Red Dog, Mad Bastards, The Eye of the Storm, Snowtown and Oranges and Sunshine.
The Eye of the Storm, was second in the nominations race with 12, of which six are...
The film, by Daniel Nettheim, is also up for best direction, adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound, production design, costume, original music score, and visual effects. Meanwhile, Willem Dafoe, Frances O’Connor, Sam Neill and Morgana Davies are all up for acting awards.
The film has currently made just over $1m at the local box office.
It’s the first year for the re-launched AACTAs, formerly the AFI awards.
The technical awards will be given out at a luncheon on 15 January at the Sydney Opera House, with an evening ceremony for the more ‘public-friendly’ awards held at the Opera House on 31 January.
Running against The Hunter for best film is Red Dog, Mad Bastards, The Eye of the Storm, Snowtown and Oranges and Sunshine.
The Eye of the Storm, was second in the nominations race with 12, of which six are...
- 11/30/2011
- by Colin Delaney
- Encore Magazine
Generation Kplus
SYDNEY -- Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger is an Australian coming-of-age comedy that's as self-consciously quirky as its title.
First-time writer-director Cathy Randall would have done well to dial down the eccentricity and concentrate on evening out the tone, which oscillates between cutesy and creepy with a jarring third-act detour into melodrama.
The misfit Jewish girl of the title (played by newcomer Danielle Catanzariti) bears more than a passing resemblance to Heather Matarazzo's nerdy 12-year-old in Welcome to the Dollhouse. But Randall doesn't have the fine-tuned satirical sensibility that allowed Todd Solondz to hit just the right note between comedy and pain.
The presence of Toni Collette and Oscar-nominated Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) should help its profile, but this Disney-backed film is too left of center to appeal to the mainstream when it opens March 20 in Australia.
Esther takes a kitchen-sink approach to the teen issues it canvasses -- bullying, peer pressure, family dysfunction and sexual awakening among them -- so there's something for everyone as far as the adolescent target audience is concerned.
But some of it is dubious fare. Esther's back-alley experimentation with a classmate, for example, is more disquieting than droll. And the behavior exhibited by her number-crunching twin brother Jacob (Christian Byers) is not so much idiosyncratic as downright scary. Little wonder the entire family winds up in a psychiatrist's office.
Esther is a tiny, beetle-browed 13-year-old tormented by her perfectionist mother's (Essie Davis) preparations for her upcoming bat-mitzvah and by the taunting of classmates at her ultra-conformist all-girls private school. The girls make fun of her dorky look and peculiar habits, and she spends lonely lunch hours talking to God through a toilet bowl. It's that kind of quirky.
Her oddness catches the eye of Sunni (Castle-Hughes), a tough-nut drummer from a nearby public school, who befriends Esther. Together they hatch a plan: Esther borrows Sunni's spare school uniform and secretly changes schools, fooling her parents while exploring an exciting new universe that includes hanging out with the cool kids and Sunni's hip, laid-back mother, Mary (Collette.)
In her desperation to fit in, Esther's natural adolescent self-absorption takes an unpleasant turn, and she starts to alienate everyone (except the pet duckling named Normal that follows her everywhere and is somewhat labored as a metaphor.)
Production designer Nell Hanson, costume designer Shareen Beringer and cinematographer Anna Howard use a Skittles-colored palette to create a heightened reality that mirrors Esther's internal fantasy world. The film boasts a great indie soundtrack dominated by upbeat Australian bands.
HEY HEY IT'S ESTHER BLUEBERGER
Tama Films
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Cathy Randall
Producer: Miriam Stein
Executive producers: Heather Ogilvie, Stephen Hays, Peter Graham, Anton Rosenberg, Toni Collette
Director of photography: Anna Howard
Production designer: Nell Hanson
Music: Guy Gross
Co-producer: Harry Clein
Costume designer: Shareen Beringer
Editor: Dany Cooper
Cast:
Esther: Danielle Catanzariti
Sunni: Keisha Castle-Hughes
Mary: Toni Collette
Jacob: Christian Byers
Grace: Essie Davis
Osmond: Russell Dykstra
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
SYDNEY -- Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger is an Australian coming-of-age comedy that's as self-consciously quirky as its title.
First-time writer-director Cathy Randall would have done well to dial down the eccentricity and concentrate on evening out the tone, which oscillates between cutesy and creepy with a jarring third-act detour into melodrama.
The misfit Jewish girl of the title (played by newcomer Danielle Catanzariti) bears more than a passing resemblance to Heather Matarazzo's nerdy 12-year-old in Welcome to the Dollhouse. But Randall doesn't have the fine-tuned satirical sensibility that allowed Todd Solondz to hit just the right note between comedy and pain.
The presence of Toni Collette and Oscar-nominated Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) should help its profile, but this Disney-backed film is too left of center to appeal to the mainstream when it opens March 20 in Australia.
Esther takes a kitchen-sink approach to the teen issues it canvasses -- bullying, peer pressure, family dysfunction and sexual awakening among them -- so there's something for everyone as far as the adolescent target audience is concerned.
But some of it is dubious fare. Esther's back-alley experimentation with a classmate, for example, is more disquieting than droll. And the behavior exhibited by her number-crunching twin brother Jacob (Christian Byers) is not so much idiosyncratic as downright scary. Little wonder the entire family winds up in a psychiatrist's office.
Esther is a tiny, beetle-browed 13-year-old tormented by her perfectionist mother's (Essie Davis) preparations for her upcoming bat-mitzvah and by the taunting of classmates at her ultra-conformist all-girls private school. The girls make fun of her dorky look and peculiar habits, and she spends lonely lunch hours talking to God through a toilet bowl. It's that kind of quirky.
Her oddness catches the eye of Sunni (Castle-Hughes), a tough-nut drummer from a nearby public school, who befriends Esther. Together they hatch a plan: Esther borrows Sunni's spare school uniform and secretly changes schools, fooling her parents while exploring an exciting new universe that includes hanging out with the cool kids and Sunni's hip, laid-back mother, Mary (Collette.)
In her desperation to fit in, Esther's natural adolescent self-absorption takes an unpleasant turn, and she starts to alienate everyone (except the pet duckling named Normal that follows her everywhere and is somewhat labored as a metaphor.)
Production designer Nell Hanson, costume designer Shareen Beringer and cinematographer Anna Howard use a Skittles-colored palette to create a heightened reality that mirrors Esther's internal fantasy world. The film boasts a great indie soundtrack dominated by upbeat Australian bands.
HEY HEY IT'S ESTHER BLUEBERGER
Tama Films
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Cathy Randall
Producer: Miriam Stein
Executive producers: Heather Ogilvie, Stephen Hays, Peter Graham, Anton Rosenberg, Toni Collette
Director of photography: Anna Howard
Production designer: Nell Hanson
Music: Guy Gross
Co-producer: Harry Clein
Costume designer: Shareen Beringer
Editor: Dany Cooper
Cast:
Esther: Danielle Catanzariti
Sunni: Keisha Castle-Hughes
Mary: Toni Collette
Jacob: Christian Byers
Grace: Essie Davis
Osmond: Russell Dykstra
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/28/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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